Running head: WEBLIOGRAPHY #3

Webliography #3 Joseph C. Greene Liberty University

WEBLIOGRAPHY #3 Summary Ten graduate students, six male and four female, were given mobile devices with which to record and upload their attempts to learn English while walking around their campus at Southern Taiwan University. Cheng, Hwang, Wu, Shadiev, and Xie (2010) designed and implemented a study in which the nearly ubiquitous use of mobile devices was exploited to measure their effect on learning potential. The students were given devices with a course specific mobile program that allowed them to record themselves performing common tasks around the campus they were already familiar with. The program also included a GPS system so that others viewing the recordings would know where they were and that classroom presentations had greater visual support. Data synchronization and system backups were also designed. The research design was focused on several areas. Attempts were made to discern the system ease of use, system usefulness, activity playfulness, activity usefulness, intention to use, system usage, learning achievement and speaking presentation performance. The study was carried out between November 2008 and April 2009. A mix of language assessments, data collection and questionnaires were used to evaluate the various aspects of the study. The initial findings suggested that system usefulness outweighed the ease of use. Activity playfulness was deemed more important than activity usefulness. Students felt context

familiarity reduced anxiety in learning English. The willingness to use and actual usage were not correlated. Finally, presentations in English enhanced language learning. The authors felt that further study was needed for multimedia and context familiarity effect on language learners in daily life. They believe that students gained confidence in

WEBLIOGRAPHY #3 learning, eventually eschewing classroom handouts, due to the low learning threshold in a familiar setting. Critique The first issue to bring up is the obvious narrowness of the study. There is one test group, no control group, and so many items being studied that very little depth of observation could be made. Why was there no control group comparison? Is this study repeatable? Does it apply in other settings? Does it apply to other subjects?

It is pleasing to see that the authors clearly understand the limitations of their study. The most encouraging thing to come out of the article was the acknowledgement that they wish to enhance and expand the program for future study. The initial findings are such that this could be a potential goldmine in redefining pedagogy, at least in the area of language study. One final area was encouraging and surprising. The improvement of the learning results, and the student enjoyment of how the material was delivered, is a positive sign towards understanding the role mobile learning could play even on the traditional campus. It was surprising, and hopefully unintentional, that the authors seemed unconcerned with the actual effect on learning and almost surprised that there was a positive effect. References Cheng, S. C., Hwang, W. Y., Wu, S. Y., Shadiev, R., & Xie, C., H. (2010). A mobile device and online system with contextual familiarity and its effects on English learning on campus. Educational Technology & Society, 13(3), 93-109.